EPA Announces Plan To Throw Out Obama-Era Climate Restrictions
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Tuesday that the Trump administration is officially rolling back sweeping Obama-era climate regulations, including the core legal justification used for heavy-handed federal control over emissions and vehicle standards.
At a press conference in Washington, Zeldin declared that the agency will move to repeal the controversial “Endangerment Finding” — a 2009 EPA rule that allowed carbon dioxide and other naturally occurring gases to be regulated under the Clean Air Act as pollutants. This single rule was the legal foundation for decades of environmental overreach, including mandates on gas-powered vehicles, oil and gas production, and electric vehicle quotas.
“This has been referred to as basically driving a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion,” Zeldin said bluntly during a podcast appearance Monday. By removing the endangerment designation, the Trump administration is stripping the EPA of the ability to regulate greenhouse gases as harmful pollutants.
In a formal release, the EPA explained that repealing the finding “would end all resulting greenhouse gas emissions regulations for motor vehicles and engines, thereby reinstating consumer choice and giving Americans the ability to purchase a safe and affordable car for their family while decreasing the cost of living on all products that trucks deliver.”
Zeldin emphasized that the move will not only restore consumer freedom, but slash federal overreach, eliminate costly and controversial EV mandates, and remove over $1 trillion in what he called “hidden taxes” on U.S. businesses and households.
Acting Office of Management and Budget Director Jeff Clark estimated that the economic benefits of rescinding the Obama-era rule could total between $1.7 trillion and $8.2 trillion over the next three decades, from 2027 to 2055.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright praised the administration’s move, crediting President Donald Trump for restoring “commonsense” in federal energy and environmental policy. “Today’s announcement is a monumental step toward returning to policies that expand access to affordable, reliable, secure energy,” Wright said.
The decision sets the stage for a major legal showdown, with left-wing climate groups and Democrat-run states expected to sue. The 2007 Supreme Court case Massachusetts v. EPA gave federal agencies the power to regulate carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act if they deemed them a threat to public health — a ruling Zeldin and Trump’s legal team are now directly challenging.
Zeldin made clear that the EPA intends to reshape the very definition of what the agency has authority to regulate. “They’ll say carbon dioxide is a pollutant and that’s the end of it,” he said. “They’ll never acknowledge any type of benefit or need for carbon dioxide. But we will.”
Zeldin also plans to open a public comment period on the new proposal and promised full transparency as the EPA reorients away from climate alarmism and back toward science and economic growth.
“This one agency, in one year, is doing more deregulation than the entire federal government across entire presidencies. That’s how much of a mess we inherited,” Zeldin said, pointing to bureaucratic bloat from past administrations.
President Trump has made dismantling green energy mandates and climate extremism a pillar of his second term. Tuesday’s announcement signals that the administration is not only following through but accelerating its plan to dismantle what it calls the “regulatory state.”